Over the past couple of weeks, students in my Museum Practices graduate seminar presented their semester projects. An Egyptology Art History graduate student, Chris Stelter, presented on the 66 short biographies he created for the renovation of the American Legacy exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum here in Memphis. He used Wikipedia as a primary resource in the project noting that “. . . using Wikipedia as a main source has helped me make a new mental connection between the available information, what I myself, as a museum professional, want to present, and what a visitor would want to take in. Since I am providing information for the public and Wikipedia is made by the public, it provides an interesting connection between scholarly research and public intake.”

In discussion after his presentation, Chris noted a certain trepidation at using Wikipedia for a “scholarly” project. When asked what he would use…

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I would be careful about encouraging children to look things up in Wikipedia. A few years ago, when I was first learning about using Wikipedia, I was looking up something about horses. As I read the entry I came upon something about people having sex with horses. That’s when I decided that Wikipedia isn’t necessarily a good source of info for children.